I found this at their site. Its an open letter to MS. Very interesting read.
Dear [email protected], [email protected] -
We are the team responsible for the Xbox Linux Project, which you may have heard of [0].
We should say first that we are big fans of the Xbox as a device and have found much to like about it while working on it. Although its 733MHz CPU is no longer high end, it is still fine for many computing tasks and we found it to be of high quality in many ways. Congratulations.
We are writing as we would like to release a version of Xbox Linux which is able to run on unmodified Xboxes. As you know, the Xbox is a normal PC that has been deliberately designed by yourselves so that as sold, it can only execute programs which Microsoft has approved.
Our users are currently forced to modify their Xbox using a 'modchip', to return the Xbox to being a normal PC which will accept programs written by anyone (and there are some great non-Microsoft programs out there [1], with many more that would be available if Microsoft did not suppress them [2]).
We would strongly prefer that our users did not have this extra complex step of opening their Xbox [3], and fitting extra circuitry [4] before they can run Linux or other programs.
Because of Microsoft's deliberate design choices in terms of restricting the software that may run on an unmodified xbox to 'Microsoft approved only' [5], coming to ask Microsoft, and presumably paying Microsoft, is currently the only way we can get our port of the GNU/Linux OS to interoperate with an unmodified box. Unkind people might characterize this as a second deliberate monopoly created by Microsoft even as they were being found guilty of creating an illegal monopoly in Operating Systems software [6].
Xbox Linux gives choices back to the user which Microsoft denies them, for example, Internet applications like a web browser [7], Instant Messaging [8] and email client [9], Multimedia applications [10], and Office applications [11], all for free [12].
We know that these features are popular with Xbox users, for example the Mandrake-based Xbox Linux distrubition on our website has been downloaded over 83,000 times [13] since last October, despite it being a 350MB download and requiring a modchip to run. So there's no doubt that our offering these features for free makes the Xbox are more attractive platform to the consumer, and enabling their use on an unmodified box at low cost will be a major factor in many people's decisions to invest in the Xbox.
In terms of our being an 'established game publisher' [19], members of our team have written games in the past, and our Xbox Linux distribution runs such fine games as 'Tux vs Clippy' [14], 'Tux Racer' [15], and 'Frozen Bubble' [16].
We would be grateful,then, if you could send us the further information we will need to offer our alternative Operating System to Microsoft for signing so it will be able to run on an unmodified Xbox. However, please note the following points:
- We will consider signing an NDA about the details of the approvals process if necessary. But because the current work of our project is to reverse engineer the Xbox to provide interoperability with Linux, some clauses in your NDA may not be acceptable to us.
- Also note we will not require any of the XDK development systems, nor their restrictive licenses, since we have already written clean alternatives. We will need certain exemptions from your normal game requirement standards, since this is an alternative OS and not a game.
- Michael Steil did try to contact you via this email address [19] August 1st 2002, but did not receive a reply. Of course, we understand that, due to what some unkind persons are calling 'dumping' of the consoles at below cost [17], you are making a big loss in this division [18] and so perhaps cannot afford to staff this email address properly. So to help make sure you are aware of our request, we have also made it publicly available on our website.
- As a free software project, we cannot afford to pay large sums of money for Microsoft to approve software which will be made freely available under the GPL [12]. Because no further development, technical information or support is required from you, and so we are asking Microsoft only to take a couple of minutes to sign our XBE loader for Linux which is already complete, we expect any costs to be in the range of a few hundred dollars.
- More money may be available however - you may not be aware that Project B of the Xbox Linux prize [20] includes up to $100,000 for a person or company which allows Xbox Linux to boot on an unmodded box. Microsoft will be eligible to apply for an award under this scheme if they approve Xbox Linux as a normal Xbox program.
We are waiting to hear from you on what are the next steps we should take towards publishing this truly innovative Microsoft-approved Xbox Linux distribution!
Yours faithfully
Michael Steil, [email protected], +49 173 XXXXXXX
Andy Green, [email protected], +44 1536 XXXXXX
Milosch Meriac, [email protected], +49 30 XXXX XXXX
On behalf of the Xbox Linux Team.
Dear [email protected], [email protected] -
We are the team responsible for the Xbox Linux Project, which you may have heard of [0].
We should say first that we are big fans of the Xbox as a device and have found much to like about it while working on it. Although its 733MHz CPU is no longer high end, it is still fine for many computing tasks and we found it to be of high quality in many ways. Congratulations.
We are writing as we would like to release a version of Xbox Linux which is able to run on unmodified Xboxes. As you know, the Xbox is a normal PC that has been deliberately designed by yourselves so that as sold, it can only execute programs which Microsoft has approved.
Our users are currently forced to modify their Xbox using a 'modchip', to return the Xbox to being a normal PC which will accept programs written by anyone (and there are some great non-Microsoft programs out there [1], with many more that would be available if Microsoft did not suppress them [2]).
We would strongly prefer that our users did not have this extra complex step of opening their Xbox [3], and fitting extra circuitry [4] before they can run Linux or other programs.
Because of Microsoft's deliberate design choices in terms of restricting the software that may run on an unmodified xbox to 'Microsoft approved only' [5], coming to ask Microsoft, and presumably paying Microsoft, is currently the only way we can get our port of the GNU/Linux OS to interoperate with an unmodified box. Unkind people might characterize this as a second deliberate monopoly created by Microsoft even as they were being found guilty of creating an illegal monopoly in Operating Systems software [6].
Xbox Linux gives choices back to the user which Microsoft denies them, for example, Internet applications like a web browser [7], Instant Messaging [8] and email client [9], Multimedia applications [10], and Office applications [11], all for free [12].
We know that these features are popular with Xbox users, for example the Mandrake-based Xbox Linux distrubition on our website has been downloaded over 83,000 times [13] since last October, despite it being a 350MB download and requiring a modchip to run. So there's no doubt that our offering these features for free makes the Xbox are more attractive platform to the consumer, and enabling their use on an unmodified box at low cost will be a major factor in many people's decisions to invest in the Xbox.
In terms of our being an 'established game publisher' [19], members of our team have written games in the past, and our Xbox Linux distribution runs such fine games as 'Tux vs Clippy' [14], 'Tux Racer' [15], and 'Frozen Bubble' [16].
We would be grateful,then, if you could send us the further information we will need to offer our alternative Operating System to Microsoft for signing so it will be able to run on an unmodified Xbox. However, please note the following points:
- We will consider signing an NDA about the details of the approvals process if necessary. But because the current work of our project is to reverse engineer the Xbox to provide interoperability with Linux, some clauses in your NDA may not be acceptable to us.
- Also note we will not require any of the XDK development systems, nor their restrictive licenses, since we have already written clean alternatives. We will need certain exemptions from your normal game requirement standards, since this is an alternative OS and not a game.
- Michael Steil did try to contact you via this email address [19] August 1st 2002, but did not receive a reply. Of course, we understand that, due to what some unkind persons are calling 'dumping' of the consoles at below cost [17], you are making a big loss in this division [18] and so perhaps cannot afford to staff this email address properly. So to help make sure you are aware of our request, we have also made it publicly available on our website.
- As a free software project, we cannot afford to pay large sums of money for Microsoft to approve software which will be made freely available under the GPL [12]. Because no further development, technical information or support is required from you, and so we are asking Microsoft only to take a couple of minutes to sign our XBE loader for Linux which is already complete, we expect any costs to be in the range of a few hundred dollars.
- More money may be available however - you may not be aware that Project B of the Xbox Linux prize [20] includes up to $100,000 for a person or company which allows Xbox Linux to boot on an unmodded box. Microsoft will be eligible to apply for an award under this scheme if they approve Xbox Linux as a normal Xbox program.
We are waiting to hear from you on what are the next steps we should take towards publishing this truly innovative Microsoft-approved Xbox Linux distribution!
Yours faithfully
Michael Steil, [email protected], +49 173 XXXXXXX
Andy Green, [email protected], +44 1536 XXXXXX
Milosch Meriac, [email protected], +49 30 XXXX XXXX
On behalf of the Xbox Linux Team.
